Burst Ovarian Cyst: Causes, Signs, Symptoms, What To Do If Cyst Bursts
Last updated on July 28th, 2018 at 05:29 am
Question: What are the causes, signs, symptoms of a burst ovarian cyst and what to do if an ovary cyst burst?
If you reached the age of 18, you would have started menstruation. Menstrual period occurs every month and could be very discomforting for a lot of women.
Between your periods, different changes occur in your body, uterus, and ovaries. Hormones that control ovulation will also change too.
Ovulation is the rupture and release of an egg from the ovaries, and in most women with a regular menstrual cycle, it takes place 14 days before expected next period.
Days before ovulation, your body’s hormones produce many follicles; However, at the time of ovulation, only one follicle reaches maturity, burst open and pushes an egg towards the fallopian end of the uterus.
Some women will develop a cyst if follicle fails to burst open and release “ovulation egg”, and rather, get bigger and accumulates a fluid that may be clear or bloody.
If a cyst gets very big, it can burst into your abdomen and cause you to feel pain, dizziness and sometimes may result in death.
This article explains
- Types of ovarian cyst
- Symptoms of an ovarian cyst (before it ruptures)
- Risk factor in developing an ovarian cyst
- The common reasons why a cyst will burst open in your abdomen
- Signs that show an ovarian cyst has ruptured
- What to do if an ovarian cyst burst
What are the types of an ovarian cyst?
There are different kind of cyst that can form on your ovaries. Some are generally benign and resolve spontaneously on their own. Others may require surgery and a few may be due to ovarian cancer.
Here are the different kinds of ovarian cyst.
1. Functional ovarian cyst
A woman’s menstrual cycle is divided into two parts. The first part starts from the day your menstrual period begins to when ovulation will occur.
During this time, your body’s follicle stimulating hormone causes a lot of tiny follicles to grow until one follicle become very big (commonly called the most dominant follicle).
The dominant follicle help to produce estrogen hormone that will be elevated during the first part of the menstrual cycle. Just before ovulation, there is a surge in another hormone, luteinizing hormone (LH), that causes the dominant follicle to break open and expel an egg towards the fallopian tube (ovulation).
After ovulation, the second part of the menstrual cycle will begin, and it involves the transformation of the ruptured ovarian follicle (that burst open and released the egg) to the corpus luteum. This corpus luteum plays a further role in helping secret predominantly progesterone hormone.
Follicular ovarian cyst
A follicular cyst form when an ovarian follicle does not break open and release “the ovulation egg”. This usually occurs due to hormone imbalance when there is over stimulation of the follicles by the follicle stimulating hormone or absent surge of luteinizing hormones that occur before ovulation.
If this occurs, it results to a cyst and may continue to absorb fluid and grow bigger. Follicle cyst usually does not cause symptoms, though some women may experience mild belly cramps and discomfort.
Corpus luteum cyst
The corpus luteum cyst develops after ovulation.
If you do not get pregnant, the corpus luteum works to produce hormones in the second part of the menstrual cycle and dissolve on its own few days before your next period will start.
However, if you get pregnant, the corpus luteum acts to also produce hormones like estrogen and progesterone in early pregnancy till about 14 weeks when it will disappear.
In some women, the corpus luteum will fail to disappear and rather forms a cyst
Other types of cyst are
2. Dermoid cyst.. see here
3. Polycystic ovaries
4. Endometrial cyst
5. Cancer cyst
While some cyst will contain a clear fluid, others will have blood inside. A dermoid cyst will contain tissues like bone, tooth, hair, and fluid.
Depending on what’s contained within your cyst, if it bursts into your abdomen, you will experience symptoms that may be mild, moderate or severe.
Who gets an ovarian cyst?
An ovarian cyst can happen anytime, from a young age to after menopause. Generally, it’s quite common in girls that are having menstruation.
In the United States, nearly all women will have had an ovarian cyst after a transvaginal ultrasound. During menopause, about 18 percent of women will also have a cyst.
The truth is, most cyst that grows on the ovaries are benign and will rarely cause cancer.
Having said that, some ovarian cyst may be due to cancer with about 21000 women in the United States being diagnosed with ovarian cancer yearly.
Risk factor for getting a cyst are fertility medications ( clomiphene citrate), during pregnancy, low thyroid hormones, smoking cigarettes, family history of a cyst, elderly women, family history of ovarian and breast cancer and women that have never been pregnant before.
What are the signs of an ovarian cyst (before it ruptures)?
Most times, a lot of women will have a cyst on their ovaries and may not have any symptoms at all. This is because most cyst will be asymptomatic and “on their own” disappears in a few months.
However, you may experience any of these symptoms
- Pain on bowel movement
- Lower belly pain after your routine exercise
- Pressure located in your lower abdominal area
- Irregular menstrual periods
- Lower belly pain after sexually active
- Sharp, dull, aching feeling in your abdomen that may continue throughout your menstrual cycle
- Nausea
- Abdominal bloating
- Vomiting
- If you have a large cyst, you may also get filled quickly after eating a little.
What causes an ovarian cyst to rupture and burst open?
Generally, most ovarian cyst will on their own disappear, though, it’s also possible some women will have complications of an ovarian cyst.
Some women may be aware they have an ovarian cyst after an incidental finding by their doctor.
If you have a cyst, it could rupture after a very stressful condition, trauma to your abdomen, rough sexual intercourse, and strenuous exercise.
What are the symptoms and signs of a burst ovarian cyst?
If an ovarian cyst burst open into your abdomen, you will experience a sharp, sudden excruciating pain around you belly button area that may radiate to the right or left side of your abdomen and your back.
If your doctor has informed you about a large ovary cyst, a sudden sharp pain is a sign of rupture. Talk to your doctor right away.
Other symptoms are nausea, vomiting, feeling very weak, fast heart rate, fever, dizziness, brown discharge from the vagina, vaginal bleeding, fainting, low blood pressure and shoulder pain.
What to do if an ovarian cyst burst?
Most times, an ovarian cyst will not cause symptoms, and you will only have life-threatening symptoms if a cyst ruptures into your abdomen. Loss of consciousness, feeling weak and sudden pain in your abdomen means you’re bleeding after cyst rupture.
The first thing to do is quickly inform your doctor. Depending on the type of ovarian cyst, hospitalization will be for a few days, and then you will be discharged home.
If ovarian cyst burst open with excessive blood loss, you will require urgent surgery too to stop bleeding.
